


You Don't Need to Protect Me

by InvincibleRodent



Series: Raymond Trevelyan [9]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Drabble, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Prompt Fill, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-08
Updated: 2015-12-08
Packaged: 2018-05-05 16:39:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5382689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InvincibleRodent/pseuds/InvincibleRodent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sentence meme prompt fill, imported from tumblr. Two nerds worrying over each other in Emprise du Lion. AKA "the one in which Dorian confirms that yeah, he's definitely not a healer".</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Don't Need to Protect Me

"You don't need to protect me."

“I  _know_  I don’t. You’re as capable as you are handsome, as you have demonstrated by bailing my inept ass out of trouble countless dozens of times.” he hisses loudly when the alcohol splashes across his skin, right into the deep gash running halfway down his back. It stings like a son of a bitch, and his knuckles go white around a handful of the bearskin under his ass… At least this pain is a lot duller than the sting of the Red Templar Shadow’s dagger digging into his shoulder blade was before its skull -or what remained of a human skull underneath the red lyrium spikes, anyhow- splattered apart on his shield with a gross  _splurt_ noise. “But I can’t let you have all the glory, can I.”

Dorian scoffs under his nose. “I had a barrier on me, you blighted moron.”

“And you’re also wearing a glorified _bathrobe_ you dare mock as armor. I moved on instinct. Sorry I didn’t check if my lover was  _glowing_  before I stopped a blade from burrowing itself in his skull- a skull about which I happen to care very much.” he gasps sharply, and drops his head. “Ssssssson of a—! _Fffffffuuuuuuck_.” he groans into the crease of his elbow. “This is worse than that one time I had Bull bandage me. You’re about as gentle as a qunari Reaver hopped up on dragon-adrenaline. Which is every bit the insult it sounds like.”

“Serves you right, I told you I’m not a healer. Now sit still, or I might decide to  _drink_  this swill instead of using it to stop your back from breaking out in red lyrium.”

Dorian works in silence for a handful of long seconds. The night over Sahrnia is quiet; dangerously, yet peacefully quiet- only the snowfall sieving over the campsite and the soft snuffling of sequestered snoufleurs can be heard in the distance.

“I hate it when you do this.” he sighs finally, and inspects his handiwork with a generally unimpressed, disapproving expression- it certainly doesn’t look like what the healers at Skyhold, or even Madame Vivienne could have done, it’s certainly less than pretty, but it will hold. Probably. He hopes so, anyway.

He shakes his head with another long exhale. “You treating your own mortality as a bloody challenge is starting to give me gray hairs, amatus.”

Ray peeks back over his freshly bandaged shoulder. “Well, this is my job.” he says with a sheepish grin. “Inquisitor to the rescue. What’s the saying, when going gets tough…?”

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

“Yeah, that’s the one.” Ray turns on his folded legs, and quietly gathers Dorian’s hands into his, gentle and natural, and he breathes an apologetic kiss on the bloodstained knuckles. “Hey, you know how this goes. We’ve been in the inquisiting business long enough. When things go down, I swoop in, and with the power of  _deus ex machina_ —”

“Do  _not_  try to pass off your divine bad luck as a merit.” Dorian interrupts, face twisted into a comparatively ugly scowl. “Your gung-ho attitude and propensity to charge at the viciously dangerous are going to get us all killed one day.”

“Maker, I haven’t felt love like this since the Exalted Marches.”

“It’s exactly  _because_  I love you that I’m saying this.” Dorian retorts “You’re gambling with your life, amatus, and I personally know a decent handful of people who would be disconsolate, were you to lose _that_ particular bet.” he falls quiet all too suddenly, voice restrained to barely above a whisper. “Myself included.”

“You said you love me.”

Dorian rolls his eyes. “Do not try to distract me.”

“Too late. I love you too.” Ray finally smiles a genuine, if crooked, apologetic smile, and his thumbs gently stroke circles into the backs of Dorian’s hands. He draws the soft hands to his lips and breathes warm air on them in a moot effort to lift their seemingly eternal coolness. “That’s exactly why I’m trying to do everything in my power to keep you safe.”

Dorian breathes a huff of a laugh. “Doesn’t stop you from dragging me through a frozen wasteland chuck full of pitfalls and Red Templars.”

“Or a pretty forest clearing that just happens to be festering with giants.”

“Or an undead-infested, diseased  _bog_.”

Ray laughs quietly, and leans forward to rest his forehead against Dorian’s shoulder. “That’s still a sore spot, isn’t it.”

“That place ruined my favorite pair of boots.” Dorian sighs in return, and he untangles one of his hands from his lovers’ in favor of burying his fingers in the short locks at the base of the man’s skull. “I may never forgive you for that.”

“I’m sorry.” Ray breathes against the patch of uncovered skin. “I’ll… try to be more careful.”

“ _‘I’ll try’_  is not enough, amatus. Not nearly enough.” Dorian lets go of the last crumbs of his anger with a long, drained exhale. “But it’s good enough for right now.”

“Much like this abominable job you did patching me up.”

Dorian smiles softly. “Do shut up before you ruin the moment for good.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have a [a tumblr](http://www.weresquirrel.tumblr.com) , in case anyone is interested! :) Prompts and feedback are always welcome! <3


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